History of JavaScript: Browser wars, ECMAScript, Node.js, TypeScript, and React
It only took ten days to develop the language that powers the web. This article tells the story of JavaScript and the tools that helped shape it. 1995. The birth of a legend The idea for JavaScript was born at Netscape. At the time, web pages consisted almost entirely of HTML, and Netscape wanted to make them more interactive. The first step in that direction was licensing Java for use in the Netscape browser. However, Java's complexity proved challenging for web designers. Brendan Eich was then tasked with creating a programming language that wasn't too complex and could be embedded directly into HTML pages. Eventually, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape Communications, and Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, also contributed to the language development. To meet the deadline for the Netscape browser release, the companies agreed to collaborate on the language. During its development, the language changed its name several times. For example, the first version Eich created in just ten days was called Mocha. It was then renamed to LiveScript. The final name was chosen because the word Java was already popular and well-known. JavaScript was first announced shortly before the second beta release of Netscape Navigator. Meanwhile, Netscape announced that 28 leading IT companies planned to incorporate JavaScript into their future products. JavaScript 1.0 was released in 1996 alongside Netscape Navigator 2. 1997-1999. ECMAScript In 1996, Microsoft also released JScript as part of Internet Explorer 3, which was an open-source implementation of JavaScript for Windows. By the way, the name was changed to avoid negotiating trademark rights for Java with Sun Microsystems. To eliminate browser incompatibilities caused by different implementations, Netscape handed the JavaScript specification over to the ECMA international organization. So, the ECMA-262 specification was created. The language got the name ECMAScript because JavaScript was already trademarked. Around the